Satire Impact on Society

Satire should, like a polished razor keen, Wound with a touch that’s scarcely felt or seen. Satire is a literary manner which blends a critical attitude with humor and wit to the end that human institutions or humanity may be improved. The true satirist is conscious of the frailty of institutions of man’s devising and attempts through laughter not so much to tear them down as to inspire a remodeling

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The best satire does not seek to do harm or damage by its ridicule, unless we speak of damage to the structure of vice, but rather it seeks to create a shock of recognition and to make vice repulsive so that the vice will be expunged from the person or society under attack or from the person or society intended to benefit by the attack (regardless of who is the immediate object of attack); whenever possible this shock of recognition is to be conveyed through laughter or wit. Many texts use satire as a technique to attract an auidience. Movies, Cartoons, And Musicians all use satire successfully.

Some satirical texts include: Scary Movie – Exaggerates the techniques used by horror movies to scare the responder Austin Powers – Sexism Towards Women, Ridicules escapes of the spy and stupidity of the evil villain. This is Spinal Tap – The Excess of Modern Musicians Songs by Weird Al – The Excess of Modern Musicians, simplicity and immaturity in lyrics of modern music. The most frequently used satirical techniques are irony, sarcasm, burlesque, and parody. Irony is a technique in which the attitudes stated differ from what is really meant. For example, words of praise can be used to imply blame.

A Modest Proposal is one of the most effective and savage examples of sustained ironic tone in English literature. Sarcasm is more caustic, crude, and heavy-handed than irony, of which it is a form. Sarcasm also tends to be more personally directed than irony. Burlesque is an imitation of a person or subject which, by ridiculous exaggeration or distortion, aims to amuse. The quality which characterises this technique is a discrepancy between the subject matter and the style in which it is treated. For example, a frivolous subject may be treated with mock dignity, or conversely, a weighty subject might be handled in a trivial style

Parody differs from burlesque in that it derides not a person or subject, but a specific literary work or style, by imitating features and applying them to trivial or incongruous materials. The poem “Father William” in Alice in Wonderland is a funny and successful parody of Southey’s poem “The Old Man’s Comforts”. Satire continues to be an important medium for social commentary in our time. A well-known example is George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The Satiric spirit has also been maintained by magazines as Punch and Mad and The National Lampoon present social and political satire.

This simpsons have also had there fair share of parody within there extending reign over the worlds population. At first glance, The Simpsons may look like a simple cartoon, but look more closely and you’ll find a nearly inexhaustible collection of satirical exploitations. Within the opening segment, many themes and issues are touched upon. Bart writing on the blackboard: Public education Bart on his skateboard: The riddles of childhood Homer leaving and driving home from work: Plight of the working man Marge at the supermarket checkout: Consumerism (Note: Maggie costs $847. 3) Lisa playing the saxophone: Restrictions of public education and free thought The family racing for the couch in front of the television: Impact of television on the modern family So even in the first 20 seconds of the show, many issues are being satirized. Now because this speech has to go for 5 minutes…. Let me inform you of the satire within an episode. Episode 204, Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish” starts when Bart and Lisa catch a three-eyed fish in a polluted stream near The Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, bringing scads of negative publicity to Mr.

Burns. In order to fight the bad press, Burns decides to run for Governor, enlisting a team of spin doctors. But all the spin doctors in the world can’t fix Mr. Burns’ major blunder when, on live TV, Marge serves him a three-eyed fish for dinner and he finally coughs up his true feelings about pollution. Now what has been satirized and how….. Well. The two main satirical subjects are. Nuclear power and Political Campaigns. The nuclear power plant includes numerous safety violations: Gum is used to seal crack in coolant tower.

A plutonium rod is used as paperweight. A monitoring station is left with no one to monitor the activity at the reactor. Nuclear waste is shin-deep in the hallway. There are a series of scenes where Mr. Burns is shown participating in activities politicians typically engage in while on the campaign trail. All of these violations are exaggerations of violations that might really occur in a nuclear power plant There are a series of scenes where Mr. Burns is shown participating in activities politicians typically engage in while on the campaign trail.

Burns loses control of a jackhammer at a construction site. This is an exaggeration of what politicians do. Typically a politician might participate in a groundbreaking ceremony, but using a jackhammer is excessive. Burns addresses an audience at a political rally with a giant poster of himself in the background. This is a parody of a similar scene from the movie Citizen Kane. Politics are very regularly satirized in the form of cartoons. Political cartoons satirize Policy Decisions and personality traits of elected officials as well as public affairs.

Political satire is usually distinguished from political protest or political dissent, as it does not necessarily carry an agenda nor seek to influence the political process. While occasionally it can, it more commonly aims simply to provide entertainment. This Political Cartoon is Quirky look at the Rudd strip club incident. The Cartoon is satirizing Kevin Rudd less than it is John Howard. Howard’s Hunt for votes is being satirized with absurdity as it empahsises on the irrational fact that he is actually stripping for votes. Also being satirized is Howard’s Voters, showing them as elderly women.

The Cartoon also uses a pun as its main point of attack. In political cartoons, visual characteristics of politicians are exaggerated. For instance john howard is known for his luscious eyebrows, his baldness and his height and build. This cartoon is no exception john is again portrayed in the stereotypical manner, which is humorous in its own right. Big events are often scrutinized by Satirical artists. Political Elections and Big events especially. When we first began watching the games I questioned why we would watch such an out of date series. But just last night….. I finally realized that the games are still relevant now.

Sure the laughs were perhaps not as loud as they were in 1998 but the subjects and themes of satire are still present in todays society. The Games was an Australian mockumentary TV series about the run-up to the Sydney Olympics in 2000. It centered on the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG), and satirized corruption and cronyism in the Olympic movement, bureaucratism within the Australian Public Service, and unethical behaviour within politics and the media. The incompetence and corruption of officials is portrayed through out the serious. Examples of this are the characters Jasmine and Robbo.

Jasmine who is in charge of “new ideas” is portrayed as an idiot, suggesting absurdities such as changing the Olympic oath and shape of medals, when it is said that she is related to the governor, it is obvious that nepotism is being satirized by the exaggeration of this women’s incompetence. Robbo is the minister for the environment. In an interview regarding the environmental issue involving the Sydney Olympics, Robbo is handed a pamphlet which he begins to read off. After several minutes of the minister discussing issues, it is realized that he is reading the wrong pamphlet.

He quickly makes an excuse and all the journalist in the room quickly agrees. This verisimilitude gives a poor appearance of truth and yet, the journalists still accept what they are hearing. This satirizes the lack of quality in Australian journalism. As well as the inferiority of Australian journalists, Robbo’s complete lack of knowledge satirizes the incompetence of officials and ministers. Another good example of Corruption and incompetence is shown in the Episode: Dead man, where an IOC delegate who was not supposed to be in the country at the time is found dead in his hotel room under controversial circumstances.

It is revealed he has been staying for the past week without his family knowing, leaving SOCOG team to cover up his death and make pretend he died under different circumstances staging his death. Throughout this episode there are many scenes where Gina, John and Nicholas move around the deceased body until they finally dump him in a taxi and send him off to a cocktail party not fluttering an eyelid at the fact that he’s dead. This behavior is made highly ironic when Nicholas sights a cameraman filming the dead body while he is hiding him in a office asking for the cameraman to “have some respect”.

Black Humour is the main satirical component of this episode which emphasises the corruptness of officials. Satire is a common aspect of many texts. It is a mode of challenging accepted notions by making them seem ridiculous. South Park, Family Guy, The Daily Show, American dad, futurama, Chasers war on everything, we can be heroes, the mighty boosh, all contain copious amounts of satire. Now Hopefully ive got past the five minute mark. So in finishing id just like to say. Support bacteria……it’s the only culture some people have.